Good morning. The committee will come to order. Not too many of us here this morning and the energy and Natural Resources committee. Its kind of a foul day. E department of energy because we would be moving forward with a package of Energy Related bills that we have been working on for well over a year. In many cases four years. Equities from some 70 different members of the senate. And we are stalled out right now. We are not not because of the concern of the people in this community, that they have not participated in but because of a matter completely unrelated to the jurisdiction of this committee, completely unrelated to anything weve been working onee prior to it so its stalled out right now. It makes me wonder why we work so hard around here to try to incorporate the good work around here. Too just take Good Committee work. My mood shouldnt have anything to do with your responsibility as a secretary and department of tear and all you are seeking to do but i do know the work of t
Michael horowitz testified about his report on the investigation of the 20 16th president ial campaign. He took questions from members of the Senate Homeland security and Government Affairs security. I want to thank you for all your hard work in preparing the report. Praise he receive is well deserved and i share those sentiments. This report is an important step in providing the important answers to the questions that have festered for far too long. As thorough as this report is, its scope is also narrow. Many important questions remain unanswered. Paidattention has been that the hurricane investigation did have adequate predicate. Omissions inand the applications and renewals call into question the integrity of that process. Rebuke andmatic abuses are. How the i would argue that based on what , we should beeals asking more fundamental questions. At what point should the investigation into possible collusion between russia and the Trump Campaign have been shut down . Ig concluded that
Incessantly for the last two weeks, this whole issue of whistleblowers. My name is patrick edington, im your moderator today. Just a few housekeeping notes before i introour guest. I want to make sure everybody have your phones at least on silent or off. Any other devices you may have whether they are smart watch, etc. , please make sure they are also silenced. When we get to the q a at the end of this event, i will ask you all to, please, wait to be called upon, wait for the microphone so that everyone in the room and our audience watching online can hear the question, and ill ask you to identify yourself to include affiliation where applicable. I think its fair to say that the anonymous whistle blower and ill continue to use that term of art throughout is just the latest in a long line of individuals who have come forward in the course of the last several decades to make various and sundry allegations about government and its conduct and, in some cases, corporate, nonprofit conduct.
To the subcommittee as well as the oversight committee. We are delighted to have you. Lets see. Without objection i want to wave onto the subcommittee, stephen horseford from nevada who wanted to ask questions. By unanimous consent we grant that privilege. I want to thank witnesses for their ongoing cooperation, you and your staff have been truly excellent partners in this oversight process. Thank you for your work, i learned from my district staff, you toward Silver Spring in montgomery county, maryland, these are diverse high density areas with high concentration of immigrants where a variety of languages are spoken and i appreciate your coming out to take out our community, my district director kevin connor met with your staff and was encouraged by the bureaus preparation so i thank you and your staff for your hard work. We have a lot to accomplish before 2020. We were embroiled in a battle over the Citizenship Question. Now that the administration is forced to stand down, the effor
Distrust of the government im 35 of africanamericans and 32 of hispanics are very concerned about the census being used against them. Similarly, 39 of people who are not English Proficient and 34 of those born outside the u. S. Are afraid to respond. So theres a lot of fear in our communities that weve got to strive to overcome. The president s executive order and immigration policies and the threatened raids all strike fear in the hearts of many of the communities that are already mistrustful of government. And even though the question will not be on the 2020 census. There is a test in the field right now where 240,000 families are being asked the Citizenship Question. Why is that . This decision to pose the Citizenship Question to hundreds of thousands of people after the Supreme Court rejected it seems hard to reconcile with the reality of the Supreme Court decision and the unbroken defeat of the question in the lower district courts. So now we face the threat of prolonged confusion